rust

The following suggestions have been derived from other sources and are not the recommendation of the Miramar Lake HOA or its board of directors and as such use is at your own risk.

Fresh Oil – The universal solution for fresh spilled oil is kitty litter. Put a handful or so on the oil puddle. If the oil spill is recent but, has already soaked in, this stuff may also draw some out of the surface so, try it before going to the next step. If you use a brick to scrub the kitty litter, will also help. This may take several times repeating, before all the stain(s) are gone.

Old Oil, Grease – This one’s harder. People do different things for oil that has soaked in. The ones worked best, in a test, was Gunk brand degreaser and Swab a driveway cleaner product made by Gunk. Both improved the situation but did not clean away the stain entirely. The driveway cleaner did a better job but was more trouble to use. The degreaser left an undesirable looking sheen, the driveway cleaner didn’t. Another product is Castrol SuperClean and a similar product called PurpleStuff. A likely place to find Gunk or Castrol SuperClean is an auto parts store. There is also some acid you could buy, however, it is suggested this would be the last, last resort.

Rust –Oxalic acid removes rust stains from most things. A grocery store cleaning product named ZUD contains Oxalic acid. Wet the rust stain area, then sprinkle liberally with ZUD and then spray until the powder is wet. Let it set for a few minutes, then scrub with a brush. Repeating this a couple of times removed the rust stains. Real oxalic acid is often sold as wood bleach, a powder—check the ingredients.

Other suggestions would be to contact your neighborhood hardware store for other possible options. And as always, you should always follow the directions as specified by the manufacture.